British set sail for Cocos Island in search of fabled lost treasure

It doesn't just happen in story books and movies. A British explorer was this week preparing to set sail for a deserted Pacific 'treasure island' to search for pirate loot worth €200m. Shaun Whitehead, an engineer and lecturer from Leicester, will lead the expedition to the Pacific's Cocos Island, about half way between Panama and the Galapagos, but owned by Costa Rica, with the aim of retrieving the fabled treasure.

The site, credited by some as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, is uninhabited. It has also been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site for its unspoilt environment and variety of wildlife and it has taken around 18 months of negotiations with the authorities to secure permission to go there on an exploratory mission. It is also said to have been the inspiration for Jurassic Park, the book and film about an island on which dinosaurs are recreated.

Armed with new technology that has never been used on the island, Mr Whitehead says he intends to establish the most likely locations on which to focus his efforts.

'Unlike previous trips we are not going to dig vast holes or do anything destructive at all.'

The group are funding the expedition themselves, although they are hoping a television company may help to cover costs. They plan to travel after the end of the current rainy season, which finishes in November.

If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/100909